Bernilillo, NM

After breaking our overnight fast at Denny's we hit the road for TX and NM. One of the first things we noticed was how far away the horizon appeared to be. You could see for miles....seemed like hundreds of miles before the horizon dropped off. Seemingly the Earth was flat again! What causes this illusion?

Since the engine light was still on....and it was even blinking at one point this morning as we were leaving Oklahoma City, I decided to save some gas and draft a semi truck for about 40 to 50 miles. We picked the Good Hope Transportation truck. We sat in its draft for a long time to see if it would help out our gas mileage a bit. We've been keeping a spreadsheet on how many miles we are driving and how many gallons of gasoline we are consuming. After we plugged in the data we assessed that drafting the semi-truck did not do that much for our gas mileage. Will try again later if we get another opportunity.

Here are some windmills in Oklahoma. These things are HUGE! And there are a lot of them. It seemed like we were on an alien planet seeing a new landscape. Or, maybe I've been watching too many Star Wars movies lately. Emily has been watching Star Wars II and III on our trip.

We arrived in Bernilillo, NM early this evening. We set up camp at the local KOA. I had camped here back in 1994 and 95 for geologic field camp. Our site was very sandy. We broke out the new tent and set it up. There was plenty of room for us.

Then, we went to get something to eat. Friends back home recommended the Range Cafe! It was good! Emily tried the bean burrito and I had mine with veggies and chicken. We also tried some chips and queso. Yummy! Then, we had some of their home made ice cream and of course that was a hit with Emily. Back to the campsite for some much needed sleep. It looked like it was going to rain. Did it?

In the morning, we are going to take the CRV to the local Honda repair to check out the engine light situation. Hopefully it won't be too lengthy process.

Durango tomorrow! Look out!

Memphis & Oklahoma City

We departed from Asheville on Saturday morning and made it to our first stop-over, Memphis. We thought it would be nice to visit Memphis. We visited America's Incredible Pizza Company for dinner and it was a fricken ZOO! I've never had such an experience. Totally rude, totally loud and totally a waste of money!!!! Never again!

So, we are driving around in downtown Memphis on Sunday morning looking for coffee and a breakfast. We were searching for Cafe Francisco! We found it, but it was shut down and for sale! Darn! We then headed for another place and click, my engine light came on! I freaked out a bit because we had only driven 500 miles of our 4,000+ mile journey. I was not about to be stranded in Memphis! Surely I realized that the CRV had been running just fine and I had just put about $2800 of maintenance and repair into. A phone call to my mechanic assured me that everything should be okay. We drove on! ....headed down the highway....lookin for adventure....

Off to Oklahoma City on Sunday. Made it without any problems. We stopped in downtown Little Rock and visited a starbucks and a BOA ATM. I haven't taken any pictures. My camera batteries were dead and my batteries were buried in my car some place. Will have picts soon!

My Garmin nuvi 350 has taken us to a number of incorrect locations for Starbucks and our hotel tonight. But luckily I prepared for that and printed up some maps. We arrived safe and sound. Saturday night it took us to a residential area where there was supposed to be a gas station.

Off to Bernilillo tomorrow. We are going to camp tomorrow and then the rest of the week. Will have picts soon! Stay tuned!

Team Velosports: Photo Shoot at the Wedge Brewery

We scheduled our monthly team meeting and a photo shoot tonight at the Wedge Brewery in the River Arts District of Asheville, NC. The main item on the meeting agenda was some Community Porter and IPA......pitchers of them.

Here is the Wedge Studios logo on the building. Okay, lets take some pictures.




Bottoms Up! See you on the road, trail, and track.

One: Guess who? Two: Lots going on!

Driving up and down Interstate 75. Can't remember how much money I've spent on gas lately. It has been a lot. But guess who came to town? And, it was the day before Fathers Day! Luck me!

What else would I want for Father's Day other than my daughter and the rest of the summer with her! What a shot over looking the Cataloochee Valley in the eastern portion of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park......amazingly I have never been to Cataloochee before! Need to come back in the early AM or late afternoon to chill down with the Elks!

Do you see any Elk? How about some Turkey?

Lots going on! I have been on a bike maybe 3 times in the last 3 weeks. And it has to do with WORK! I at least have some cool projects right now.

New techno toys include the Garmin nuvi 350 and a Dell laptop. It is going to get us there! Stay tuned!

Somebody Save me! .....from the work stress! ....from the rush of life's mess! ....put me in the woods! ....give me coffee!

BONUS:
One of the things my daughter and I like to do together is to play "Restaurant". Here is the menu she made. We seat the customer, take their order, make their food, give them the bill, pay for our meal, leave a tip and check out! It is fun!

Here is a pict of Father's Day Sushi! We had a lot of food!

Sesame Street 1972

The good old days when life was simple!

Why stereotype?

Big truck. Not parked correctly. Taking up too much space. Hmmmm? I am not perfect either, but.....I'd be willing to bet the owner of vehicle comes out of the store with a case of Budweiser. Yeah?

Trippin on I-75 and Recitaling in Ohio

Here we are again, time for another dance recital. Been doing the dance recital scene for 8 years now. I still have the flowers from the very first one my daughter was in when she was very young. Aren't they pretty?!


Here is that familiar shot in the I-40 gorge that I always seem to remember to take.

The drive to Ohio included a 3 hour stretch where I averaged about 4 mph.......no, I wasn't on my bike either. This was a diversion of all interstate traffic from I-75 into the little town of Jellico, TN and then on up to Williamsburg, KY. It was an 11 mile stretch of Interstate that we diverted from onto a 13 miles stretch of road.

Folks were out walking their dogs, peeing in the woods (I had to get out and do that too) and talking to their newly found vehicular neighbors. I wish I had one of those Garmin GPS devices so that I could navigate around this detour. We were in a tight spot and there were not many road options around, but I later learned that there were a few other roads. But, at the time of me being diverted from the interstate, I had no way of knowing that it was going to last 3 hours.

Ohio! What else can I say, other than the flat farmlands recalled from my college youth. Yeah, I used to live in NW Ohio for about 10 years. It is flat!

Okay....finally here! Aint we purdy! I missed her so much! Happy to be here!

On the stage. I snuck in a few shots with my phone camera. Not too clear, but it is not appropriate for flash cameras while they are performing.

There are not too many Starbucks on a road trip in NW Ohio. So, we found a local shop called Morey's. Their roasters are in Michigan somewhere. When visiting new coffee shops, I usually ask "where do you roast your beans?". I prefer "in-shop" roasting at my favorite coffee shops.....at least locally when I am not on a road trip.

On the boat in the pond in the back yard.